Sony signs development deal with Aussie audiophiles

Sony has signed a joint development agreement with Australian audio technology company Audio Pixels Holdings.

The deal will see Sony funding the lion's share of costs associated with turning Audio Pixels' technology patents into a mass-manufacturable product. ASX listed Audio Pixels chairman Fred Bart said the he anticipated that once the development phase and testing has been completed, "the parties will enter into a formal commercial licence agreement".

Audio Pixels Holdings owns 100 per cent of Audio Pixels Limited, an unlisted Israeli corporation which developed the technological platform for reproducing sound which enables the production of a new generation of speakers that can be used in products for mobile phones, televisions or stereo systems.

Sony delivered the first batch of phase-one development chips for testing to Audio Pixels in Israel on 17 June 2011.

The company said that once it achieves mass production capabilities, it plans to sell and/or license its products to the manufacturers of speakers and consumer electronic devices globally.

Audio Pixels will produce and sell a single type of silicon chip that can be used either as a standalone speaker or cascaded in any multiples of the same chip in order to achieve the desired performance specifications. ®